A PROJECT REPORT

ON
ANALYSIS OF INSURANCE SECTOR
IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION
Insurance may be described as a social device to reduce or eliminate risk of
life and property. Under the plan of insurance, a large number of people
associate themselves by sharing risk, attached to individual.

The risk, which can be insured against include fire, the peril of sea, death,
incident, & burglary. Any risk contingent upon these may be insured against
at a premium commensurate with the risk involved.

Insurance is actually a contract between 2 parties whereby one party called

insurer undertakes in exchange for a fixed sum called premium to pay the
other party happening of a certain event.

Insurance is a contract whereby, in return for the payment of premium by the

insured, the insurers pay the financial losses suffered by the insured as a result
of the occurrence of unforeseen events.

With the help of Insurance, large number of people exposed to a similar risk
makes contributions to a common fund out of which the losses suffered by the
unfortunate few, due to accidental events, are made good.

INSURANCE IN INDIA
The insurance sector in India has come a full circle from being an open competitive market
to nationalization and back to a liberalized market again.

The business of life insurance in India in its existing form started in India in the year 1818
with the establishment of the Oriental Life Insurance Company in Calcutta. , when it was
introduced for English Widows. Even till the end of the nineteenth century, Insurance
Companies in India were mainly the overseas companies investing in the insurance works
in India. An interesting fact here was that higher premiums were charged for Indian lives,
as they were considered riskier for insurance cover.

Insurance is mainly of 2 types

: LIFE INSURANCE

: GENERAL INSURANCE

Under life insurance the life of an individual is covered whereby an individual or his family
is assured a particular amount. Life insurance covers only the financial losses and not the
emotional losses.

India General Insurance covers almost everything related to property, vehicle, cash,
household goods, health and also one's liability towards others. The basic difference of
general insurance with the life insurance policy is that it offers protection against
contingencies.

Some of the important milestones in the life insurance business in India are:

• 1912 - The Indian Life Assurance Companies Act enacted as the first statute to
regulate the life insurance business.
• 1928 - The Indian Insurance Companies Act enacted to enable the government to
collect statistical information about both life and non-life insurance businesses.
• 1938 - Earlier legislation consolidated and amended to by the Insurance Act with
the objective of protecting the interests of the insuring public.
• 1956 - 245 Indian and foreign insurers and provident societies taken over by the
central government and nationalized. LIC formed by an Act of Parliament, viz.
LIC Act, 1956, with a capital contribution of Rs. 5 crore from the Government of
India.

Some of the important milestones in the general insurance business in India are:
 • 1907 - The Indian Mercantile Insurance Ltd. set up, the first company to transact
all classes of general insurance business.
• 1957 - General Insurance Council, a wing of the Insurance Association of India,
frames a code of conduct for ensuring fair conduct and sound business practices.
• 1968 - The Insurance Act amended to regulate investments and set minimum
solvency margins and the Tariff Advisory Committee set up.
• 1972 - The General Insurance Business (Nationalization) Act, 1972 nationalized the
general insurance business in India with effect from 1st January 1973.

107 insurers amalgamated and grouped into four companies viz. the National
Insurance Company Ltd., the New India Assurance Company Ltd., the Oriental
Insurance Company Ltd. and the United India Insurance Company Ltd. GIC
incorporated as a company.

Today Insurance Companies in India have grown manifold. The insurance sector in India
has shown immense growth potential. Even today a giant share of Indian population nearly
80% is not under life insurance coverage, let alone health and non-life insurance policies.
This clearly indicates the potential for insurance companies to grow their market in India.

In 1999, various reforms were suggested in the insurance industry in India. This has
changed a lot of things for the insurance companies in India. These reforms were:

o Bringing down of the government’s stake holding to 50%

o Only the private companies with a minimum capital of Rs.100 crores should be
allowed to enter the insurance sector.
o No insurance company can deal in both life and non-life insurance under the same
business entity.
o Foreign Insurance Companies can enter India only in collaboration with domestic
insurance companies
o Interest should be paid on delays of payments by the insurance companies in case of
non settlement of insurance claims.
o And many more to bring greater freedom and a well-planned regulation to the
insurance companies in India.

Though, the existing rule says that a foreign partner can hold 26% equity in an insurance
company, a proposal to increase this limit to 49% is pending with the government. Since
opening up of the insurance sector in 1999, foreign investments of Rs. 8.7 billion have
poured into the Indian market and 22 private companies have been granted licenses.

The various fields covered by insurance companies in India include:

 o Life Insurance: For students, children, family, individual etc.
o Health insurance: For self, for family, accidental insurance premium, medical claim policies
etc.

Non-life insurance: Home or House Insurance and other property insurance, Auto Insurance (for
cars, motorcycle and other two-wheelers, commercial vehicles), Infrastructure Projects Insurance,
Travel Insurance, real estate insurance, mobile insurance etc.

Innovative products, smart marketing, and aggressive distribution have enabled fledgling
private insurance companies to sign up Indian customers faster than anyone expected.
Indians, who had always seen life insurance as a tax saving device, are now suddenly
turning to the private sector and snapping up the new innovative products on offer.

With the largest number of life insurance policies in force in the world, India’s insurance
sector accounted for 4.1 per cent of GDP in 2006-07, up from 1.2 per cent in 1999-2000, far
ahead of China where insurance accounts for just 1.7 per cent of the GDP and even the US
where insurance penetration stands at 4 per cent of the GDP. One area that continues to
cause concern is the number of customer grievances in insurance, especially in a few
specific classes. This calls for more transparency in designing the contract wording and on
insisting that the applicant is sufficiently informed about the coverage and more
particularly the exclusions. In addition, the legislation itself requires to be transformed to
meet the needs of the emerging markets.

The demand for health insurance covers has seen a healthy increase, and today the sector is
the fastest growing segment in the non-life insurance industry in India, which grew at over
40% last year. It is also emerging as an increasingly significant line of business for life
insurance companies. While this rate of growth appears to be very healthy, it is on a low
base, and health insurance penetration in the country continues to be low. Only about 25
million persons are presently covered for health through commercial insurance, in a
country of over 1.1 billion people. Overall, the Indian health sector is still characterized by
the near absence of any significant risk protection against major health-related expenditure

GROWTH OF INSURANCE SECTOR IN INDIA

India's insurance sector is zooming to show an unprecedented progressive growth of more
than 200% by the period of 2009-12. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry
of India has clocked out the fact that during this period, private players in the industry will
see a growth of about 140 per cent, owing to the adoption of the aggressive marketing
techniques in comparison of the growth rate of 35 per cent-40 per cent achieved by the
state owned insurance companies. The chamber is expected to poise the business of
insurance to reach at Rs.2000 billions in coming 2 years from the present level of Rs. 500
billion. With the result of adoption of the intense marketing strategies by the private
players, the declination has been witnessed in respect of the share of the state owned
insurance companies captured in the market. The market share fallout has been noticed in
context of such companies like GIC, LIC, which have come down to nearly 70 per cent in
the past 4-5 years from the 97 per cent. The experts have fore casted the more severe
competition in the insurance sector likely to be occurred in the near future. Till recently,
insurance sector was majority driven by the government sector players but now many
private sector multinational players have come into the picture. Like HDFC, ICICI, Kotak,
Mahindra and Birla Sunlife. Insurance sector has been characterized as the booming sector
of the Indian arena, which has shown the growth rate of more than 15 per cent to 20 per
cent. Insurance in India is put under the federal subject and is governed by the Insurance
Act, 1938, the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956 and General Insurance
Business(Nationalization) Act, 1972, Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority(IRDA) Act, 1999 and by various other acts.

INSURANCE COMPANIES IN INDIA

1. Life Insurance Corporation of India

2. Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited

3. Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd

4. HDFC Standard life Insurance Co. Ltd

5. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

6. ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd.

7. Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd

8. Met Life India Insurance Company Ltd.

9. Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited

10.SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd

11.Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited

12.Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited.

13.Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Pvt. Ltd.

14.Sahara India Life Insurance Co, Ltd.

15.Shriram Life Insurance Co, Ltd.

16.Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd.

17.Future Generali Life Insurance Company Ltd.

18.IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Company Ltd.

19.Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Co. Ltd

20.AEGON Religare Life Insurance Company Limited.

21.DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

22.Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Comp. Ltd.

23.National Insurance Company Ltd.

MARKET SHARE OF INSURANCE COMPANIES